A new law proposed by conservative Israeli politician Amnon Cohen could see Internet Service Providers (ISPs) solely responsible for blocking children from accessing adult content websites, including online gambling sites.

Proposition 892 has already passed the primary voting stage in the Israeli Knesset and is designed to protect children ‘from the dangers of pornography, violence and gambling’.

Cohen is a member of the Shas orthodox political party and his proposed law would require ISPs to block adult sites from children by utilising biometric means for the identification for adults in addition to a personal password as a means of verifying the age of the user.

The proposal will go into the next stage of becoming law in two weeks’ time where many experts expect it to fail but it has sparked debate in the nation surrounding issues of censorship, privacy and the role of parents in childrearing.

“Too many parents nowadays are unaware of what their children are up to, not only relevant to the Internet,” said Gilad Lohan, computer expert and journalist.

“The basic argument claims that it is the parent’s responsibility and not the country or government to educate. A simple yet effective solution is placing the computer in the living room. If the government will start dictating what we can or cannot view, there’s no promise that in the near future they will not censure other ‘topics’.”

The current proposal does not state which sites would be restricted or who would make these decisions and, according to many in the nation, fails due to the lack of suitable technology.